She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1) in Do Better: SFF without Sexual Violence

Jul 30, 2021 Silvana rated it really liked it

Shelves: series-and-trilogies-i-completed, kindle-google, reading-with-friends, fyeahfantasy, z-2021-fantasy, mine-mine-mine, historical-fiction, female-nonbinary-authors

Woohoo, finished! RTC

This is a BOTM for the World Beyond the Margins group in August. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Come and join us, participate in the author Q&A too :)
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

...more

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Aug 15, 2021 Beige rated it really liked it

Shelves: zread-1-fantasy, zz-colour

An impressive first novel - 3.5 stars

I recommend this to those who are tired of the usual tropes in YA fantasy, but still want the sweeping adventure and characters you can root for.

...more

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Feb 26, 2023 ♥Xeni♥ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, audiobook, china, asia, lgbtq, 2023-books-read, bingo-22-23

This was a fascinating book. I greatly enjoyed it, even if I feel I didn't understand enough. I don't know much, if anything, about ancient Chinese history, so for me this has been entirely fiction. Only about halfway through did I do some extra searching and realized that most of this is actually a historical fiction novel, based on the rise of the first Ming Emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang (born Zhu Congba).

Most of the characters in this book are real life figures: Mongol general and eunuch Ouyang, Ma This was a fascinating book. I greatly enjoyed it, even if I feel I didn't understand enough. I don't know much, if anything, about ancient Chinese history, so for me this has been entirely fiction. Only about halfway through did I do some extra searching and realized that most of this is actually a historical fiction novel, based on the rise of the first Ming Emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang (born Zhu Congba).

Most of the characters in this book are real life figures: Mongol general and eunuch Ouyang, Ma Xiuying (Zhu's future wife), Xu Da (Zhu's monk friend from their childhood in the monastary), the Guo family, and probably others. It made it more interesting to listen to the rest of the book once I learned this. I did find the first part easiest and most interesting - Zhu's life as a nameless girl child then later on disguised as a boy in the monastery was simple and understandable. Once Part 2 started it was harder to focus: 3 new protagonists introduced (possibly 4?), 2 warring factions with very similar personalities (everyone feels like war-mongering, angry, revenge-seeking powerful male who reacts with anger; Guo stood out as being slightly stupider than most of the rest).

The story itself is incredibly well written. It does not feel like historical fiction, but most like fiction that happens to be set in history. It feels very personal and intimate. We get to see so much of the main characters personal lives, from what it is like to be trapped in a female body when you think of yourself as male (as Zhu feels after a lifetime of being Chongba), what it's like to be a eunuch most of your life, even a sensitive, empathic Ma who only wishes everyone to live in peace. Their innermost thoughts are so interesting to me.

Especially how everyone thinks about their fate. Fate and destiny are intertwined in this narrative in a way I'd not seen before. It's both something you can seek, hunt, find, and yet inevitable and guaranteed. It feels like a heavy weight pressed on you by society; more than expected gender norms (of which there are plenty), or religious expectations (feeding the hungry ghosts of your ancestors). I liked that all these elements have actual physical consequences even if they wouldn't in our world - ghosts here are real, magical light from heaven does bless you, etc.

Listening to this book was both great (the descriptions are beautiful, the narrator has a great voice) but at times also frustrating (I find it difficult to separate a lot of these names from one another). I think I will want to read the book again the future.

I find it interesting that Zhu sees herself as a man in a woman's body, yet the pronoun used in the narrative for her is always she/her. I like that the story took the time throughout to explore her gender and sexual identity without it feeling like too much or like it doesn't fit. It made another interesting facet to the exploration of the role of women in this part of China (bound feet, makeup, rigid chores / arts that they may do and not do, etc).

Overall I really enjoyed this story. It was well written, engaging, and a piece of history I knew nothing about and thus I learned a lot. I'll definitely read the sequel. ...more

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Dec 01, 2021 Pixie 🍜 rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dnf, netgalley, illumicrate-picks

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Dnf review to come

A huge thank you to netgalley and the publishers for an eARC in exchange of an honest review.

I was so excited to read this one! A historical novel about a girl who disguised herself as her dead brother to live another day. That’s some Mulan stuff we all grew up with so of course I was interested.

But this just did not work for me.
Maybe it’s the writing style, which is beautiful but very much detached from the characters, or perhaps the pacing, but I couldn’t get fully investe Dnf review to come

A huge thank you to netgalley and the publishers for an eARC in exchange of an honest review.

I was so excited to read this one! A historical novel about a girl who disguised herself as her dead brother to live another day. That’s some Mulan stuff we all grew up with so of course I was interested.

But this just did not work for me.
Maybe it’s the writing style, which is beautiful but very much detached from the characters, or perhaps the pacing, but I couldn’t get fully invested.

We don’t even know the main characters name until she takes on her dead brothers name. Until then she’s just the girl or she. And the beginning is kind of slow to get anywhere, though I understand that we are being given context for our main characters background. We don’t really get to understand inside her head properly. It’s this weird kind of third person past tense which both tells us bits of what she’s thinking but isn’t fully inside her head and it doesn’t quite work for me.

I did, however, start to get more and more invested as she takes her journey becoming a monk. I thought that I would get more time there but we have quite a few time jumps. Again, not great for getting to know a character. I believe this is based on a real person so this may be why, but even if that were the case, since it’s not a standalone book, I’d have liked to get to know our main character and the other monks better so I cared about them when big important plot stuff happens to everyone.

As it was, big important plot stuff happens and I was like ah whatever okay. I didn’t really care? I hadn’t been given a reason to care as I only knew like three monks by name and one of them was an asshole.

Anyway, just when I’m starting to settle into this story the point of view is changed. And it’s not like an alternating chapter by chapter pov, we’ve had about 40% of the book already, and now we are in someone else’s head-not-head.
I was entirely pulled out the story. If you’re going to introduce another character as a POV, in my opinion it has to be early. The problem is, unless you also like that character then it’s hard to want to read their point of view. I didn’t like the things this character had done up to that point and so it entirely ruined the book for me. I got bored and I just wanted the book to end.

So yes, this clearly wasn’t for me. I was excited to learn more about life in China and Chinese history which I did get, but I didn’t get characters I could engage with as I was never deeply enough in their personalities or feelings that I could get attached or get any sense of them other than as vague concepts. This was the failure for me personally. I assume that this is maybe a similar style to older Chinese writing or maybe even the ballad of mulan, and while an amazing concept, made it hard for me to care about the characters enough to enjoy the novel.

I hope this appeals to others who are a fan of this style of writing though! ...more

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Aug 15, 2021 Jess rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc, read-2021, read-2023

She Who Became the Sun is beautifully and carefully written, however, I found it slow-going in parts - particularly in the novel's first half. I was much more invested when the focus was on Zhu and Ma, and sometimes found myself willing the narrative to move quickly back to them. That said, the decision for which characters would provide the multiple POVs was definitely a clever one - it made for a more complete world-building, and a more well-rounded view.
I have a complicated relationship with ...more

1 like · Like · see review